LeBron James surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record seems to be only a matter of when — not if. With that said, when the Los Angeles Lakers star breaks the record, Magic Johnson doesn't think Kareem will be truly happy about it.
During his interview with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, Johnson was asked on what he thinks Abdul-Jabbar would feel when James breaks his record as the NBA's all-time leading scorer. The Lakers icon got brutally honest and admitted it would be a “bitter pill to swallow” for Abdul-Jabbar, adding his belief that Kareem probably had this thought that he would be able to hold onto the title as the best scorer in NBA history “forever.”
“If I got to be honest, Kareem isn’t going to handle it well…And it’s a dude that’s playing for the Lakers,” Johnson shared.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 38,387 points throughout his career, and he has been the NBA scoring leader for more than 30 years now ever since he retired in 1989. However, LeBron James is really close, with the Lakers forward at 37,144 points at the time of writing.
James is just 1,243 points away from the record, and he could very well break it this 2022-23 season if he maintains his current average of 27.3 points per game.
Sure enough, Magic Johnson's comments might have some merit, especially since there are recent talks about how James and Kareem do not have any kind of friendship or relationship whatsoever.
However, it is also possible Johnson might be overthinking things. After all, in a 2021 interview, Abdul-Jabbar did say he will be “right there to cheer him on” if LeBron breaks his record.
Guess we just have to wait and see how Kareem will really react when James finally achieves what was seemingly an insurmountable feat before.
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